wisdom teeth the day before thanksgiving? why not.

well i don't really have much time to write today, and i know this post is a little late, but exam week is drawing near and that means that every teacher has made everything due this week! but oh well i'll make it. anyways last wednesday (the day before my beloved turkey day) i got my wisdom teeth taken out. somehow i only had the two top teeth, so the surgery was pretty simple. and thank goodness the recovery was too. my mom said i was a little loopy on the way home from the oral surgeon's but that once i got home i fell right asleep. waking up with your mouth chocked full of gauze is a strange feeling, but it was good to know i was still alive. my teeth were feeling snazzy and i was even able to eat a full thanksgiving meal the next day (in very small amounts and only chewing with my front 4 teeth of course)!

who doesn't love death valley on a saturday?

i claim that i'm not that big of a clemson football game, but there's nothing like the allure of death valley on a perfectly crisp autumn day. this past saturday, i don't think we could have asked for a more beautiful day to have our last home football game. i woke up at around 11 after a good 9 or so hours of sleep expecting to look out my living room door and see a grey landscape drizzled with puddles and rain droplets, since that seems to be the theme of the weather for clemson football this season. but to my surprise, the sun was shining bright and the yellow and orange leaves of the oak trees had never looked so resilient. i showered and went out to tailgate, and tailgate i did. i think i consumed for mini sandwiches, chicken nuggets, apple slices, and dr. pepper's than i ever have in one sitting. but boy was it worth it. with the warmth of all that food i just engulfed sinking in, my friends and i headed into the game to witness greatness. there's nothing quite like sitting in the student section amongst 80,000 of my closest friends. the game was awesome, CJ Spiller is awesome, and clemson is awesome. it really is the best place in the world.

thanksgiving is my favorite season.

i guess technically thanksgiving is not an actual season like winter, spring, summer, or fall, but thanksgiving is most definitely my favorite season of the year. one of the main reasons i love thanksgiving is because it lies in the real season of fall, which just happens to be my favorite season of them all. anytime that i can get pumpkin cream cheese at einsteins on a bagel and eat said bagel while speeding down a mountain road flanked by orange, yellow, and red-leaved trees is a great time. but anywho, let me give you a run down the rest of my favorite things about thanksgiving (in no particular order):

1. cornbread dressing

2. football

3. family

4. no school

5. tryptophan

6. cool weather

7. autumn leaves

8. pumpkin pie

9. friends

10. more cornbread dressing

yes, i know. most of those are foods. but lets be honest, who doesn't love a huge thanksgiving meal?

i promise i have a good reason.

so the reason i waited till today to write my blog for last week was because i knew something epic was going to happen last night. and boy was i write. since tl hanna didn't have school yesterday, we figured it would be a good time to do a little old fashioned younglife scavenger hunt. and of course, as you probably guessed, it wasn't just any old fashioned scavenger hunt. the plan was to break them up into teams and give them a checklist of things they had to do around the anderson mall (if you haven't been there, don't bother) ranging from having a makeup lady in dillards put eye shadow on a boy to gathering 10 toothpicks from food court free samples. and for a little added flair, 5 of us leaders were disguised and hidden around the mall and were worth extra points. i of course was dressed as a janitor and was carrying around my cleaning caddy in the men's section of belk polishing mirrors and cleaning windows. well, as awesome as our plan was, we ran into a little difficulty. two words: mall cops. well they quickly shut down the scavenget hunt, saying that roaming the mall in groups of 6 or more is considered gang activity. real cool anderson mall. we were also told we couldn't take photographs in the mall due to protecting homeland security. what? that doesn't even make sense. one cop was nice enough to sympathize with us and share that even though he's taking crime scene photography classes at tech, they still wouldn't even let him take pictures in the mall. what a travesty. but nonetheless, the cop call threats and name-taking threats subsided and we cleared out to chickfila, where the love and milkshakes flowed freely. you may think we counted the night as unsuccessful, but you'd be wrong. after going to lunches at the school today and hearing people talk about younglife getting in trouble with the cops and getting kicked out of the mall, i'd take on the mall cop anyday. bring it on paul blart.

corndogs and candy apples

well this entry is a little late, but i figured i'd tell you about my weekend. i don't know how often you frequent columbia, sc, but if you make it there at all, it should be during the week in october when the sc state fair is there. now you think a museum has culture? you haven't seen anything until you visit the state fair. the fair has a flair for bringing out the best of south carolina. people come from the woodworks just to make it to the fair. pretty much everything about the fair is great, but here's my list of the top 10 things at the sc state fair(in no particular order):

1. Fiske french fries

2. foot long corndogs

3. ginormous sand castles

4. mullets

5. fake hypnotists

6. 200 pound bunny rabbits

7. teenagers in action

8. carnies

9. strawberry lemonade

10. funnel cakes (duh)

i hope you're inspired to make it to the sc state fair at some point in your life. its NOT real life.

scattergories brings out the best in people

who knew that the board game scattergories could produce such a good time. well, this was something thing that i figured out last night while team tlh was on our team overnight to liz's lake house on keowee. normally i dread these types of team events, but for some reason i knew this one was going to be eventful. needless to say, dinner and the shenanigans before the game were fun, but when scattergories got into full swing, the laughter started to roll in like a tidal wave. answer after answer from certain individuals were some of the most ridiculous things that I have ever heard. let me just give you a few of my favorite answers. for the letter A, liz's answer for color was "orangoutang orange". let's dissect this: one "orangoutang orange" is not even close to a real color, and two, its spelled with a O not an A. sweet sweet liz. she thought we were all laughing at her because it was a ridiculous color. she soon figured out how to spell it. liz struck again with the letter H, saying the "heltics" were a professional sports team. kelly chimed in during the letter P, using "pink ponies" as her answer for things you find in a souvenir shop. she was so embarrassed by her own answer that she couldn't bring herself to say it. i don't think i've ever seen her laugh so hard. so all in all, i think i have a new favorite board game. and a new favorite color of course.

take that art loeb.

so for fall break a couple of friends and i went on a 3 day backpacking trip to the Pisgah National Forest outside of brevard, nc. and what a 3 day trip it was. it started off well on friday afternoon. after leaving clemson we stopped in the burg to eat at the infamous wade's. i'll admit despite my skepticism, it was good, but still no lizard's thicket. we made it to pisgah by about 6:30 but this was just the beginning. the ranger station was closed, so we just took some pictures of the map and went on our merry way. we had to head back to town to get pipe tobacco and stop and dolly's ice cream parlor. bad decision #1. this little detour used up the last of our daylight, meaning that we had to do everything else, like find a campsite, set up camp, make a fire, etc, by artificial light. you'd think every person would bring a flashlight or something, but no. somehow we ended up with my headlamp and dkal's $0.50 clunker of a flashlight. needless to say we were up the river with no paddle and wearing a bookbag of rocks. somehow we found a campsite, made a fire, and got semi-settled. and of course, it decided to rain. i think if our night hadn't already been so stressful, we would have persisted, but we folded, climbed in the car, drove to the nature center down the road, and spent a long and uncomfortable night sleeping in the car. the good thing is that this was our lowest point. we woke up the next morning determined to make this backpacking trip one to remember. we headed to the ranger station, got a map and a game plan, went to walmart to get a compass, and headed to the art loeb trail, a 20 mile round trip out and back hike to the top of cold mountain. yes, the cold mountain. the weather was testy, but the rain held off for the most part, making the trip out there great. the views were unreal and the time with friends was even better. camping on top of cold mountain was awesome. good conversation by flashlight makes any situation awesome. after a good nights sleep, we made the trek back down the mountain in an hour less than it took us to get out there. that would be due to the bojangles that was awaiting us right down the road. too many great things happened to list them all, just take my word, it was the best trip i've been on in a long while. i can't wait for round two...

relaxation.

so i decided to count how many weekends I have been gone away from clemson doing something in a row. yea, that would be 4. I went to athens, then went to the beach, then went and did wrangler training at sharptop, and last weekend I went to kate's wedding in beaufort. phew. i can't tell you how much fun each of these trips were, but man did they leave me tuckered. then add on 4 weeks of stressful school work and co-op interviews. i was mush. complete mush. i was useless. so this past weekend i turned down all my options and decided to stay in clemson and relax. its pretty hard, well really hard actually, to unwind here in clemson, simply because there is always a bustle of activity and things to do. but as it turns out, everyone was gone this weekend. and i mean everyone. i had the apartment to myself, so needless to say, i relaxed. and slept. then ate. and slept some more. i feel like a new man today. it was so great and awesome for my soul. today marks a new week, and i feel more like me than i have for a while. i can already tell that its going to be a good week...

she's a bad mamma jamma

that's the song my good friend kate comer danced to for the first time as mrs. monts. it was so awesome! i got to spend the weekend in hilton head with a bunch of my best friends for kate's wedding this past weekend. i got to know kate spring semester of my freshman year when i got placed on the same Young Life team as her. we got to know each other really well and connected on alot of levels. we were pretty much meant to be friends. we took stat 301 last fall and suffered through it together, but i told her i wouldn't let her fail, and she didn't. but on saturday she got married to david, who she's been dating for a long while now. she got married in the old sheldon church ruins, a historic site in yemassee, sc. the story goes that sherman burned the church on his march though the south, and it was never rebuilt, leaving the brick remnants of what once must have been an awesome church. after the ceremony, the reception was at a restaurant right on the water in downtown beaufort, sc. talk about awesome. the sun was setting and the music was playing. what a perfect night to get married. the rain held off and everything went smoothly and kate and david went on their merry way to their honeymoon, which he somehow kept secret the entire time and most people still don't know where they are! as much fun as the weekend was, this week is about to be crazy! 3 tests and 8 co-op interviews. woof.

of course i went to stc.

i knew wrangler trainings were coming up, but for some reason i wasn't sure i was going to be able to make any of them. i must have hit my head REAL hard when i thought that. an opportunity to spend an entire weekend at stc at get paid for it? duh. of course i was in. good thing i finally figured that out at 2 pm last friday (ie the day i was supposed to be there). but if i have learned anything from the past summer, it's that younglife camps always need help. so i scrambled to get in touch with ryan and after a few failed tries, i got an email, a voicemail, and a phone conversation from ryan all in a 10 minute span. and to know surprise they were short trainers and could definitely use my help. the decision was made, i was heading to stc for the weekend. i knew kristi, another ropes intern i spent the summer with, was heading there, so i called to see where she was. fortunately enough, she was just getting into sc, so i told her to adjust her route to swing by clemson and pick me up. good call. the car ride there was unreal. that pretty much describes our relationship. yesssss. but anyways the training went well. i had an awesome time meeting some new friends. athens trips will now be even more fun filled due to my new zit-popping buddies. but i'm home safe and sound in clemson now, once again missing the great stc and all its fabulous people. good thing i'll be back in a month!

beach, here i come.

after this week, i definitely deserve a trip to the beach. Young Life, a ministry I'm apart of here at Clemson, is going on our yearly fall retreat to Garden City Beach, which is right down the road from Myrtle Beach. We get to stay in this awesome church that is basically two rooms full of bunkbeds. While it may not seem very lavish, the people I get to go with are what make it one of my favorite weekends. school is definitely in full swing, and while I have alot of work coming up this week, thats definitely not going to stop me from enjoying good times with my best friends this weekend.

and i'll leave you with this sign. apparently now we need pictures (as if we don't already have enough distractions from the road)

empty nesters.

so since my brother is now in college, my parentals are living the dream. and apparently leaving my brother and i out of the loop completely. thanks alot.

i got an email from her yesterday titled "vacation". after rumors of a christmas getaway, i anticipated plans for a carribean adventure for the holidays. strike one. the email was to inform us that my parents and some friends were taking a little road trip. to maine. seriously? it was filled with names of places in maine that i don't think i ever would care to go to, information for realtors, phone numbers, etc. lame-o. so i figured, a weekend hiatus from sc is good for them, they need a break. strike two. 11 days. ELEVEN DAYS. so much for quick trips, they're in it for the long haul. just out of curiosity i decided to google the address of the house they're staying in. strike three. i'm out.

yeah. i know. $1,950,000. real cool mom and dad. well looks like they're living the high life but i guess i can say they deserve it. they put up with me for 18 years. this is compensation enough.

round two.

so for this blog, our teacher asked us to answer some questions about our writing habits. i didn't really want to do a blog in the first place, and i dislike even more the idea of someone telling me what to put in it. but hey, i'll give it a go. donkeys like bananas don't they? i can live with some instruction.

1. What are you're best memories about writing?

i really enjoyed learning to write. i thought it was the coolest thing since global guts whistles from cereal boxes. i think my favorite part about it though was the fact that we got to write on special paper with big lines. didn't you love how easy they made it?

2. What is the easiest thing about writing for you and why?

the easiest thing would probably be sitting down and writing an assignment all at once. i feel like once i get started, i'm like that bus sandra bullock tries to calm in speed; there's definitely no stopping me. i'm not really sure why, i guess i just like to get things done.

3. What is the most difficult thing about writing for you?

definitely thinking of what to write about in the first place. i contemplated the direction of this blog for a while before i finally settled on this awesome identity.

4. What different kinds of writing do you do? Who reads your writing? Where is your writing published or shared with others?

i keep a journal that i write in pretty much everyday, but other than that, just papers for school. and since packaging science is my game, those papers really only consist of lab reports which are, well, blah. no one sees my journal and i guess only teachers see the other writing that i do. its definitely not published. yet.

5. What materials and/or equipment do you like to have on hand when you write? What are these items for? Why do you have them?

well a pen and paper or my computer definitely. when i journal i sometimes listen to music. music kind of gets you in the zone, frees you from the world a bit to really think and write.

6. What steps do you follow when you write? Outline your writing process, using a simple, informal outline format.

heres an analogy for how much i follow steps:

commands:puppy

me:steps

just like a pup, i really don't listen at all. structure is something that i'd rather not have in my life.

7. Are you a procrastinator when it comes to writing? What do you try to avoid? What do you typically do instead?

with my journal, i write every morning while i drink my coffee. what a geezer. but for schoolwork, of course i procrastinate. who doesn't? instead i probably accomplish just as little, but atleast its not schoolwork.

8. What’s the biggest influence on the way that you write? Why does it make a difference?

the biggest influence is probably however i'm feeling. if i'm happy i'll probably write something funny or along those lines, and if i'm not in the best of moods i'll be a little more serious. pretty natural i think though.

9. If someone else were observing you as a writer, what would they notice? What would they see or hear?

they would probably notice that i hunch over my journal as i write. its just what i do. get over it. also i tend to chuckle or smile while i'm writing. i mean, it makes me happy, what can i say?

10. Overall, how would you describe yourself as a writer? What kind of writer are you, and why do you say so?

random, quirky, funny, emotive, loud. i guess i'm a writer who writes no holds bar. so gnar gnar.

welp, here we go.

I'm taking a class this semester that requires the creation of a blog and at least a weekly post on this blog. Since I don't really have a choice, why not have a little fun with it. She gave us free reign to write on whatever we desired. If you really knew me, you would know how long it took me to settle on one thing to write about. I could be one of the more random people in the world. ever. But anyways, after coming off of an awesome summer at STC, what better than a blog branched from one of our favorite sayings. If you've ever seen "David after Dentist" on YouTube, you'd recognize the phrase "Is this real life?" It seemed to be a constant theme this summer that as soon as something completely ridiculous occurred, someone somewhere would chime in with the subtle yet surprisingly versatile saying. As it turns out, the infamous line even made it on to our intern tshirt.

But as I've been back here at Clemson, I've found myself saying the phrase in my head alot more than what would probably be considered a healthy amount. Maybe that's just a testament to how ridiculous my life is and the people in it are. But you know me, I wouldn't have it any other way. No one here really gets the magnitude of what this quote can mean, so to tell the world about it, I've decided to start this blog in order to share about my "is this real life?" moments and hopefully to some avail. I'm about to mix both comedy and blogging so let's see how this goes...